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Originally Posted by Tuor of Gondolin
It seems probable that the giant spiders were the offspring of either Ungoliant or Shelob, but which? Since I believe Ungoliant traveled to at least the area of Mordor it seems possible she visited Mirkwood on the way.
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Erm... no.
Sorry, but there's no evidence that Ungoliant ever left Beleriand. As it says of Shelob, in the chapter "Shelob's Lair":
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There agelong she had dwelt, and evil thing in spider-form, even such as once of old had lived in the Land of the Elves in the West that is now under the Sea, such as Beren fought in the Mountains of Terror in Doriath, and so came to Lúthien upon the green sward amid the hemlocks in moonlight long ago. How Shelob came there, flying from ruin, no tale tells, for out of the Dark Years few tales have come. But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness. Far and wide her lesser broods, bastards of the miserable mates, her own offspring that she slew, spread from glen to glen, from the Ephel Dúath to the eastern hills, from Dol Guldur and the fastnesses of Mirkwood. But none could rival her, Shelob the Great, last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world.
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Take note of the two bolded lines. The first states that Shelob came originally from Beleriand and she came to Mordor "flying from ruin". Also note the last liine, where she is called the child of Ungoliant.
Then note the other bolded line, in which it seems to say quite clearly that there were spiders in Mirkwood descended of her. It seems quite clear to me that Tolkien intended in this passage that the spiders Bilbo faced to have been descendents of Shelob.